Beloved artist Maira Kalman shows us that a darling baby is all you need to see everything with new eyes
Based on the journal she kept during the first months she spent with her new granddaughter, Maira Kalman brings to life the tiny and grand moments of one summer by the sea, brimming with beauty and love. Like the classics Tell Me Again About the Night I was Born and More, More, More Said the Baby, this book offers young children an irresistible window into a time when they were the center of their family's world. New parents and grandparents will delight in the exploration of how nothing makes an ordinary day more extraordinary than sharing it with a baby.
Maira Kalman was born in Tel Aviv and moved to New York with her family at the age of four. She has worked as a designer, author, illustrator and artist for more than thirty years without formal training. Her work is a narrative journal of her life and all its absurdities. She has written and illustrated twelve children's books including Ooh-la-la- Max in Love, What Pete Ate, and Swami on Rye. She often illustrates for The New Yorker magazine, and is well known for her collaboration with Rick Meyerowitz on the NewYorkistan cover in 2001. Recent projects include The Elements of Style (illustrated), and a monthly on-line column entitled Principles of Uncertainty for The New York Times.
Kalman has written and illustrated many different kinds of picture books over the years. This one stands out as unique since it is clearly autobiographical. Written about her first grandchild Kalman brings to life the delicate emotions that may mostly be shared by a grandparent and grandchild.
The only thing more special than a baby itself is the bond between babies and grandparents. Author/illustrator Maira Kalman perfectly captures that short and magical time by chronicling a summer at the beach with her granddaughter. Her incomparable drawings accompany the story.
This book spoke to me on a lot of levels because I have four children. As close as I was to each of them as babies, I wonder what it will be like when they have children of their own, and I become a grandmother. The book so beautifully captured the unique bond between grandparents and grandchildren, all the more because it came from Kalman’s journal of a summer by the shore with her granddaughter. I also loved her drawings which bring their trademark perspective to what’s written on the page.
This book felt so sweet to me. I loved the narration, and seeing the different and simple parts of their daily lives. My sister has a new baby, and now I want to gift this book to her.
No one quite like Kalman. This book has the immediacy of a very young child's experience and the nostalgic tone of an older narrator. Illustrations delightful and strange, as ever.
This book is more of a poem, with the adult seeing all of the "ordinary" things through the eyes of a baby, and remembering what it's like to see them all for the first time, and the wonder that is the world. It's not made clear who the adult is, though likely a grandparent, since at point the child is away on a trip for a few days and the adult feels like all these things just aren't quite the same without those fresh, fascinated eyes.
I just love Maira Kalman and her observation/appreciation of the commonplace: light on the water, cherry pie, people in a diner. This would be a unique baby shower gift book.
This was soooo beautiful! I bought this for my niece for xmas and I adore it. It's basically a book of the mood and feelings that Maira had, while she was spending the summer with her infant grandchild. It's so tender and touching that I got misty eyed while reading it. Another gorgeous work of art by Kalman.